One of the most useful uses of a smart home is to monitor your energy consumption. Some smart devices report their usage on their own, but for dumb devices, you often have to rely on adapters. They literally come in all shapes and sizes. The cheaper ones are a bit bulky and thick, while the more compact ones are often a bit more expensive. Wi-Fi is often the cheapest, then models with ZigBee connectivity come in, and Z-Wave plugs are often the most expensive.

Not only can you monitor your power consumption with these plugs, you can also manage your power supply. This way you can easily reduce standby power consumption by turning off appliances completely at night. You can also perform certain actions or make calculations over time based on the power your appliance needs. Did your dishwasher recently need a lot of power and dropped below 5 watts for more than five minutes? Then it’s probably over.

So while smart plugs can be useful in a smart home, they certainly don’t make your home any more beautiful. Especially with wall plugs that are clearly visible, such a plug can be an eyesore. Now, provided the flush-mounted boxes are deep enough, you can place the switch modules behind your wall socket, but it’s easier to just buy one that has all the smart functionality already built in. In this short review, we take a look at exactly that device: the Aqara H2.

NB: The Aqara H2 is a type E wall socket, which is not allowed in Flanders. Type F toilets with a grounding pin must be used there.

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While you can buy a variety of wall plugs, smart wall plugs are rare and expensive. Fibaro has its Walli line, where you’ll pay around €75 for a Z-Wave plug. They have a very modern design and you should like that. Within the Zigbee world, you can get a Niko version for just over €50. So when Aqara announced that it was putting its money into ZigBee for a suggested retail price of €39.95, it caught my attention.

The first thing you notice is that the Aqara H2… doesn’t stand out. Aside from a small push button next to which is a status LED, which can thankfully be turned off, it looks like a regular wall socket. The dimensions are in line with the System 55 standard from switch manufacturer Gira, so if you already have dual wall sockets in this line, they will fit into your existing cover frame. Other brands sometimes sell intermediate frames to make them fit; for example, I needed them to make the H2 fit my Jung windows. A window is included when using the H2 on its own. At 35mm deep, it should fit into most surface-mounted boxes.

Compatibility

I tested the H2 with both Home Assistant and Homey. The latter recognized it as a generic Zigbee device, but did the right job. However, the sensors didn’t seem to be updated and the on/off didn’t work either. Even when I installed the Aqara app within Homey, the H2 wasn’t recognized. It’s possible that the device will be added to that app in the short term, but it’s not working at the time of writing.

The Home Assistant gave a better result. I tested with both Zigbee2MQTT and the built-in ZHA, and the H2 immediately picked up the first well. Through the smart home software, it is possible to toggle the built-in relay and read various sensors, including power, energy, voltage and temperature. The status LED can also be turned off and the button deactivated. The sensors transmit data accurately every ten seconds, and the switching on and off is done without delay. The maximum load can be set for safety. If it is exceeded, the socket turns itself off. Finally, you can choose what to do after a power failure, and there is one Shipping Protection-Option. When this is turned on, the socket will turn off if the load drops below a certain level, which can be set between 0 and 2 watts. So if your phone is charged before bed and is full, it won’t keep charging overnight.

The built-in ZigBee support for Home Assistant, also known as “zha,” is more difficult with the Aqara H2. A double switch appears, and the top switch does nothing. At least, you can’t turn the H2 on or off from the interface. However, if you toggle it with the physical button, it will also toggle. Additionally, the temperature sensor is not updated and the options are not available Lock button Shipping protection is absent.

Just like with Homi, we are confident that this issue will resolve itself in the long run; there is no technical reason why it wouldn’t work. ZigBee works with profiles for each device and it is clear that the Zigbee2MQTT community was the quickest to create a profile.

Conclusion

The Aqara H2 looks harmless, has a great feature set and is relatively competitively priced. If you’re looking to replace all your sockets with H2s, you’re still looking at a significant investment. For sockets that aren’t in sight, I’d always go for a cheaper adapter. However, if you have appliances plugged into visible areas and want to control their power consumption or have the option to turn them on and off remotely, the Aqara H2 is a neat solution.